Sunbeltblog comments
Well, Maddox was right. 
I have to disagree with you on a few points.
First off, never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence. Take a look at the numbers, a< href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/01/poll-did-you-upgrade-your-iphone-to-firmware-v1-1-1/">here. See the trend? Almost as many non-hacked iPhone were bricked as hacked iPhones, even though the total number of non-hacked iPhones upgraded is far more!
Next, the plan to stick with a single vendor probably has to do with revenue sharing.
As far as the ability to create apps for it goes, people seem to keep overlooking the fact they Apple did say we may be getting that ability later this year. Unfortunately I can't quickly find the quote for you. One of our other developers mentioned to me that he thinks that will come with the release of Lepoard and it's updated widget framework.
Where in that article do you see that the Zune is going DRM free? Here's a quote from the article you linked to:
"One drawback is that Zune still adds DRM to any music you share wirelessly with friends, so they can only listen to it three times before they have to go and get their own copy."
Oops. I hit publish instead of preview. Oh well. That was most of my point, anyway.
Daniel,
Since when did treating customers like dog meat become even remotely acceptable?
I never said it was.
I've already responded to this on WinXP News, but here it is again:
The bottom line here is that Apple is not delivering what customers want. When that happens, customers go elsewhere to get what they want. It’s not about rules, regulations, or whether Apple (or anyone else) has the right to mess with what you licensed/purchased from them. It’s about the fundamentals of exchange: I have what you want (money), you have what I want (cool phone, certain features promised), so now an exchange can take place. If the phone turns out NOT to be cool/as promised for whatever reason, don’t be surprised when I DON’T spend money on your next product. Expand that premise to the customer base, and you’re out of business.
The DRM advocates (recording companies) are learning this the hard way. Apple, it seems, is starting to learn the hard way (or will very soon). With Linux on a sharp rise since the release of Vista, even Microsoft (if they continue down the path they’re on) will learn the hard way too. No one is immune to this. I only hope Apple can get it together – overall, that’s a group that’s done some very cool things over there.
I don't really understand why DRM is being brought up in this conversation. You do realize that the iPhone (and every iPod, for that matter) can play non-DRM'ed music, right?
As far as Apple not delivering what customers want, I would like to say that I'm quite happy with my iPhone. It's a huge leap forward from my previous phone (a RAZR). No, I'm not an Apple fanboy. It's the only thing I've ever bought from Apple. That's including music.
Find a company that delivers exactly what everyone wants and I'll be very impressed.
Just as an example: I've been itching to get the iPhone, and was probably going to do it by December. That would mean paying $200 to cancel my Verizon contract. However, now that I've seen what's to come for Verizon phones (LG Voyager), I'm going to wait to check that out.
Although, seems like the AT&T plans for the iPhone a very reasonable, and... after reading H.D. Moore's blog on dropping down to a shell on the iPhone... I'm still itching
Wait, wait, wait...
Mr. Cormier...you paid, what? $500 to own a device which the developer of said device says you CANNOT add any third party applications? You find this acceptable?
Phillip: Yeah, the rate plans are really nice. Other than with the iPhone ($20/mo on top of whatever plan you have, or $60/mo for 450 a minute plan with the data), the cheapest you can get an unlimited data plan from AT&T looks to be $50 or $60 (and that doesn't seem to come with any voice minutes).
That's another reason I went with an iPhone. For my next phone I wanted one that I could have decent web access on, but the plans were all much more expensive than I cared to pay. The plans for the iPhone were much more reasonable. That's probably another reason they signed on with a single carrier: to be able to provide good plans for the phone. To force the cell phone industry to make their data plans more reasonably priced.
Steve: No, I paid $300. I paid $200 when I bought my black RAZR a couple years ago (just after they came out). It's more than 50% better than the RAZR in my opinion, so it's more than worth it to me. For $500, not so much.
I didn't add 3rd party applications to my previous phone, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
Don't misinterpret this and think I'm saying that I wouldn't want to be able to have 3rd party apps on it. I know there are devs out there who have some great ideas for it. Hell, I have some things I would like to write for it (I'm a dev by trade). But do I feel like I'm missing out because of it? Not really.
You're just going to have to live with the fact that some people are in fact happy with their iPhones. I'm not saying that you should be or anyone else should be. Just that I am and I know other people who are.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/
0,2...,299602,00.html
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